1000 Ways to Love Your Total Greek Yoghurt - Part 1

Total Greek Yoghurt has a new campaign designed to inform readers about the 1000 new recipes and ways to use and love their yoghurt.  Based on this campaign they invited a group of food bloggers up to London for a day cooking recipes using Total Greek Yoghurt under the guidance of Chef Paul Merrett. We arrived at La Cucina Caldesi off Marlebone Lane,

When I arrived Paul Merrett came over and said hello right away (unlike some celeb chefs who pretty much keep to themselves!) and he was very warm and welcoming and gave us a quick run down of the session and off we wsent to settle in at out workstation.

Chef Paul Merrett gave us a quick idea of the agenda for the session

Finishing touches on the panna cotta

As soon as we arrived we were given a quick snack of Panna Cotta made with Total Greek Yoghurt (TGY) which was absolutely devine.  I am not a breakfast eater as a general rule so this was a very welcome offering mid-morning.

Greek Yoghurt and Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raspberries

We were split into groups and told that we would be cooking the lunch of three courses.  First of all we prepared and made the Semolina Sponge Cake with Almonds, Hazelnuts, Greek Yoghurt and Honey. We prepared the cake first because it would take about 1 hour to bake and we could get on with other preparations in the meantime.

Ready to go in the oven

All four groups baked their cakes together

A few minutes to cool then pour over the syrup

Ready to serve

Just checking the middle is cooked

Served with a drizzle of honey and a dollop of yoghurt

Semolina Sponge Cake with Almonds, Hazelnuts, Greek Yoghurt and Honey

Serves 8
Ingredients:

For the Sponge Cake
120g TOTAL Classic Greek Yoghurt
250g butter
190g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
50g self-raising flour
Zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon (keep separate)
100g ground almonds
100g ground hazelnuts
250g semolina
2 tablespoons of poppy seeds (plus 1 tablespoon extra for the top of the cake)

For the syrup
Juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon
175ml water
140g golden caster sugar
50g honey
1 tablespoon orange blossom water

To serve
A blob of TOTAL Classic Greek Yoghurt
Honey

Method:
1.      Pre heat the oven to 175°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.
2.      Grease the baking tin.
3.      Beat the butter and sugar until it is pale yellow and creamy.
4.      Beat in the eggs one at a time.
5.      Now chuck in the flour, zest, ground nuts, semolina, Greek yoghurt and poppy seeds.
6.      Stir everything up well and spoon in to your greased baking case.
7.      Bake for about 1 hour but check after 45 minutes – the sponge will be golden brown and springy when cooked.
8.      Put the cooked cake to one side to cool slightly and make the syrup.
9.      To make the syrup place all the ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil.
10.  Allow the syrup mixture to reduce by at least half.
11.  Using a fork dot holes across the surface of the cake and then pour over the syrup, sprinkle with the extra poppy seeds.
12.  Serve with Greek yoghurt and a trickle of honey.

Next we proceeded to make the starter - but I will talk about that in part 2! See you there.